Sitting in mass last Sunday with my devout Catholic wife, I realized that, if it wasn't for my sudden inspiration last year to read the entire bible cover to cover, I would still be sitting there thinking how stupid it all sounded. BUT, it all must be true if billions of people over the centuries believed it. Just got to have faith.

Well reading the Bible was my tipping point. And, if it sounded stupid before, the stupidity was just compounded after each and every absurd story I listened to on my Bible App. As I listened, I compared notes with the Skeptics Annotated Bible and found it all very entertaining. It reads like any other mythology but quite bizarre with this whacked out insecure deity as the main character. (I would encourage you to read 'The Story of God: A Biblical Comedy about Love (and Hate)' if you haven't already.)

After the final page of probably the wackiest book of them all, Revelations, there was no turning back. Now I sit there and chuckle under my breath as the priest and congregants solemnly go through their weekly rituals. And in the end, petitions are earnestly made to a make-believe deity that always go unanswered, yet week after week they keep coming back for more.

I think, at least for doubters, there's nothing more persuasive for debunking Christianity than reading the actual book that it is based on. How ironic huh?

Just curious, for how many of you was reading the Bible your tipping point?

For me, it was the "do as I say, not as I do" hypocrisy of the Catholic Church that did me in.
Probably because I was brought up in a relatively liberal Catholic environment where we didn't take the bible very literally at all.
That, and the TTA website

Now I am truly embarrassed that I didn't consider these issues sooner; but better late than never!

Your faith is not evidence, your opinion is not fact, and your bias is not wisdom

The great mayority of Christians never read the bible from cover to cover. Hardcore evangelicals cherry pick and read random passages from the bible. But they never read the bible cover to cover. Most Catholics don't care about the bible. They are only familiar with the passages selected from the bible for the mass.

Religion is bullshit. The winner of the last person to post wins thread.

(02-12-2015 01:17 PM)Leo Wrote: Hardcore evangelicals cherry pick and read random passages from the bible. But they never read the bible cover to cover.

And just how do you know this? I am an evangelical and I have read the Bible at least once each year for over 50 years. Most of the other evangelicals I know have also read the Bible all the way through several times.

Where did you come up with the idea that none of us read the whole Bible?

The information in ancient libraries came from real minds of real people. The far more complex information in cells came from the far more intelligent mind of God.

(02-12-2015 01:17 PM)Leo Wrote: Hardcore evangelicals cherry pick and read random passages from the bible. But they never read the bible cover to cover.

And just how do you know this? I am an evangelical and I have read the Bible at least once each year for over 50 years. Most of the other evangelicals I know have also read the Bible all the way through several times.

Where did you come up with the idea that none of us read the whole Bible?

Probably because few of the christian we interact with know their bible. When you point something out, most have no idea it was in there.

For me, the tipping point towards atheism wasn't the bible but the fact that I was being told so often that god wanted a personal relationship with me but I heard nothing but crickets while so many other people apparently had these wonderful "relationships." Even people who weren't seeking out a relationship seemed to get one but not me. The bible didn't help this out any since why was god so personal to the people in that book but he just hid from everyone else. That made him look like he was playing favorites and that is not something that wants a personal relationship with everyone.

"If we are honest—and scientists have to be—we must admit that religion is a jumble of false assertions, with no basis in reality.
The very idea of God is a product of the human imagination."
- Paul Dirac

(01-12-2015 11:42 AM)Reducetarian Wrote: For me, it was the "do as I say, not as I do" hypocrisy of the Catholic Church that did me in.

QFT. You took the words right out of mouth.

“I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man’s reasoning powers are not above the monkey’s.”~Mark Twain
“Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man - who has no gills.”~ Ambrose Bierce

(02-12-2015 03:11 PM)theophilus Wrote: I am an evangelical and I have read the Bible at least once each year for over 50 years.

“I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man’s reasoning powers are not above the monkey’s.”~Mark Twain
“Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man - who has no gills.”~ Ambrose Bierce

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